Home EnergySave Community Successes

Energy-Efficient Housing Policy

Kitasoo First Nation: The Kitasoo / Xai'xais First Nation has a small community-owned hydro plant powers the village, which is backed up with a diesel generator. To accommodate for the future growth, the nation explored ways to reduce the community’s electricity demand and developed Energy Efficiency Housing Policy. The housing policy has been approved by the Kitasoo Band Council. Kitasoo Energy Efficient Housing Policy and Implementation process webinar recording is available on the FBC youtube channel.

Home and Building Renovations

Kanaka Bar Indian Band: Kanaka Bar has a vision of building a self-sufficient and sustainable community, which includes self-sufficiency in employment, food, finances and energy. In addition to solar and small-scale hydroelectric development, the community is putting a lot of effort into rolling out a home energy efficiency project, which focuses on community capacity development, youth engagement, and community-led action. Read a case study on this work and watch our video series: Reno Nation, Kanaka Bar.

Osoyoos Indian Band: In the face of rising rates and utility bills, Osoyoos Indian Band partnered with FortisBC to encourage their community members to get involved in the Energy Conservation Assistance Program (ECAP). ECAP offered residents a free home assessment and measures to reduce energy consumption. Osoyoos Indian Band was successful in getting 100% of their low-income homes and 51% of band-owned and privately owned homes to participate. Hear how they did it in this webinar recording.

Kwadacha Nation: In 2014 Kwadacha Nation, one of BC’s most isolated communities, upgraded 11 homes as a community pilot project on energy efficiency; the result was reduced energy consumption, an average of 37% in the first year and $2,000 per year savings for each participating household. More information on this pilot is available through Kwadacha Nation Energy Conservation Program report and First Nations Housing - Saving Money and Energy (webinar recording)

Old Massett Village Council (Haida Nation): Old Massett Village Council reduced the cost of operating the community’s adult day centre by over $2,000 per year through various improvements — solar roof panels, better insulation, improved thermostat control, more efficient lighting, EnergyStar appliances, a change in heating system and more.

New Construction

West Moberly First Nation:West Moberly First Nation is building a Passive-certified health station, which will be the first of its kind in the province. The Nation wanted to share the experience of a high-performance building with its entire community and to showcase its value and benefits.

You can also listen to our webinar about lessons that West Moberly learned from building to a Passive House standard.

Nuxalk Nation: The Nuxalk Nation has used their local assets and resources to construct culturally appropriate, high-quality housing for their community members. In the process, the Nation has trained a local construction workforce and focused on educating and empowering tenants and homeowners.

Yale First Nation: When Yale First Nation decided to invest in building new rental housing, they turned to Britco, a modular building company, to construct a sixplex that meets the highly energy efficient Passive House standards. The modular homes were prefabricated in Britco's facility and then transported to Yale First Nation, in a process that took 5 months. You can hear more about this project in this webinar recording.

Seabird Island Sustainable Community: The Seabird Island Band (Sto:lo) completed an innovative community development project in 2003. Energy-efficiency and sustainability features included solar roofs, earth-tubes, recycled heat energy, use of recycled plastic, wind energy, high-performance windows and concrete slab floors. The project also offered opportunities to foster local capacity and skills.

Penticton Indian Band EcoSage Project: The Penticton Indian Band participated in a pilot project (completed 2014) to expand housing through construction of eight high-efficiency homes. These were constructed to optimize use of space, minimize maintenance and make use of natural passive energy.

Clayoquot Sound First Nations: The EcoTrust Green and Culturally Appropriate Building Design Project helped in the design of homes for Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The project took into account cultural elements such as traditional long house design and use of cedar and other local harvested materials.

Ucluelet First Nation: A housing development of Ucluelet First Nation used recycled materials and relied on local labour to lower the building costs. Insulated concrete form walls helped with high energy efficiency, durability, and mold prevention.

Hesquiaht First Nation Place of Learning: Hesquiaht First Nation built a combined community centre, school and post-disaster facility with the use of local labour and resources. Sustainability features included solar-heated rainwater to power a geothermal heating system and wind power for natural air ventilation.

Our Vision

Social well-being supported by a vibrant economy and sustained by a healthy environment.

About the Fraser Basin Council

The Fraser Basin Council (FBC) is a charitable non-profit organization that brings people together to advance sustainability in the Fraser River Basin and throughout BC. Established in 1997, FBC is a collaboration of four orders of government (federal, provincial, local and First Nations) along with those from the private sector and civil society. We work with people in multiple sectors, helping them find collaborative solutions to today’s issues through a commitment to the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Our focus is on healthy water and watersheds, action on climate change and air quality and strong, resilient communities and regions.